Machinery for feeding drop-presses



(No Model.)

E. L. HWE.

MACHINERY FR PEEDNG DROP PRESSES.

Patented Apr. 14, 1885.

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N, PETERS, Phezwmmgmph UNITED STATES PATENT rErcE.

EUGENE L. HowE, or CHICAGO, iLLrNois.

MACHINERY FOR FEEDING DROPPRESSES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 315,942, dated April 14a, 1885.

l Application filed September 6,1884. (No model.)

`To all wwm it may concern:

Beit known that I, EUGENE L. HowE, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machinery for Feeding Drop-Presses; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the aecompanying drawings, making part of this speciiication.

My invention relates to a new and useful contrivance especially designed for facilitating the feeding into or placement on the lower die of a drop-press of the malleable-iron links 0f what are known as detachable drivechains,7 but which may be modified to use in connection with other articles than chainlinks.

Previous to my invention it has been customary, in the operation 0f straightening or giving final and perfect shape to the malleableiron links designed to be put together in the manufacture of detachable drive-chains, to place one link at a time on the lower die of the drop-press, then allow the upper die to descend and impart the necessary blow'to the link, and to then remove the latter and replae it by a fresh link, and so on, the operative placing each link by hand on the lower die, and subsequently removing it therefrom to make room for another. As will be readily seen, this mode of manipulation by the operative is not only comparatively slow, but in performing it he runs more or less risk all the time of getting his fingers caught in the last link.

My invention has for its object the combined means by which any possibility of accident is avoided, and by which also the operator is enabled to feed onto the dies in a perfect manner and to discharge therefrom a much greater number of links in a given time than it has been possible to manage in the manner heretofore practiced.

f To these main ends and objects my invention consist-s in the employment, in combination with the drop-press, of any desired construction, of an upwardly-inclined trough or feeder, in which a series of links or other devices may be placed, so that the operator, by pushing on the lowermost article of the series, will cause the leading one of said series to be properly placed upon the lower die of the press, and so that by a repetition of this pushing operation on the lowerniost device the straightened article, or the one last placed on the lower die, will be discharged therefrom during the operation of placing the next one on said die, all as will be hereinafter more fully explained; also, in making said inclined trough` or feeder adjustable with reference to the lower die of the press both vertically and longitudinally, in order that articles of different lengths and thicknesses may be fed with equal facility by the same trough or feeder to the device of the straightening-press, all as will be hereinafter more fully explained; also, in the use, in combination with the feeder trough or device, of au adjustable stop, by which the movement of the operatives hand in inserting the articles successively at the lower end of the feeder will be regulated so as to insure the pushing of the series of the articles yin the feeder to exactly the proper extent, all as will be hereinafter more fully set forth; also, in the combination, with the feeder-trough, of aspring-latch or holder device for holding upwardly and in proper place the last inserted article at each operation of placing in the feeder a fresh one by the operative, all as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.

To enable those skilled in the art to which my invention relates to understand and practice the same, I will now proceed to more fully explain the construction and operation of a machine or contrivance made according to my said invention, and in that form in which I have so far successfully practiced the several features of my improvement, referring by let-- ters of reference to the accompanying drawings, which make part of this specification, and in which- Figure 1 is avertical section of a portion of an ordinary drop-press (such as used in straightening chain -links) having applied thereto one of my s feeder devices or contrivances, Aand showing the arrangement and illustrating the movement of the series of chain-links, such as used in making what is known in the market as the Ewart7 drive-chain. Fig. 2 is a front view or elevation of the feeder device and the chain-links therein detached from the press. Fig. 3 is a detailed cross-section of the feeder device, taken at the line x x of IGC) Fig. 1, looking in a direction opposite to that in which the operative would look while in a working-position., Fig. 4 is a detailed View of the adjustable hand-stop detached from the feeder device. Fig. 5 is a perspective View showing better the general shape of one of the i links of a Ewart detachable drive-chain.

In the several figures the same part will be found designated bythe same letter of reference.

A is a portion of a frame of an ordinary drop press, such as usually employed .in straightening or perfecting the shape of cast malleable-iron chain-links; and B is the lower, and C the upper, die of said press, the opposing faces of which are of course cut out to match, respectively, the two sides or surfaces of the'link which is to be struck between them.

At that side of the press at which the links are `usuali-y fed onto the lower die, B, by the Aoperative is secured a metallic stand or brackjusted or set at different positions longitudi nally on the latter, so as to bring the upper end-of said feeder-trough farther front and nearer to the front edge of the lower die, B, of the press. The vertical portion of the stand E, it will be seen, is secured to the side of the press by means of the bolt a,'which passes through an oblong hole, e, in said standand by this means the latter may be set at differ ent elevations, and thus effect the adjustment of the upper end of thel feeder D to different heights relatively to the top surface of the die B of the press. By these two adjustments the feeder-trough may be set so that the machine will operate equally well with links of several different sizes as tolength and thickness. The feeder-trough D is made of such a shape, as is clearly shown, that the chainflinks m, after having been successively entered therein at the Vlower enlarged end of the feeder,will t and easily slide within said feeder-trough, the side bars of the links moving in the side grooves or depressions, n, (see Fig. 3,) of said feeder-trough.

G is a spring-latch retainer device, which is mounted near the lower end of the feeder D on a pivot, y, and which has a tendency to remain in the position seen at Fig. 1, by reason of the action of the spring c, one end of which is secured to the xed pivot y, and the other end of which presses upwardly against the pin z of the catch. Said catch or stop G is so shaped that its forward lowermost end, d, comes against the bottom of the trough D, while its upper forward portion is of such oblique form that'the forward end ofa chainlink, m, when inserted at the lower end of the feeder-trough DA and pushed upwardly in said trough will depress and pass over said latch 0r holder ,device G, and so that in like man- 7o ner will the coupler-hook end of said link pass over said latch,when the latter will spring up into the position seen at Fig. 1 and act as a stop or retainer to prevent the descent of the last-inserted link while the operator is get ting ready toinsert another one.

h is a movable or adjustable nger or hand stop, which is composed, as shown, simply of a U-shaped piece of wire, the ends of which are inserted in some one of the several pairs of holes z' in the top surface of the feedertrough D. At Fig. lthis finger-stop h is shown as placed in the lowermost set of holes, as that is the proper position for it, with the size of chain-link m as shown in the drawings. With a size of link slightly shorter this finger-stop would be placed in the set of holes higher up on the feeder D, and so on. The object and effect of this nger-stop are to regulate -the movement of the hand of the operator every time he shoves forwardly and upwardly in the feeder D a fresh link, so that he will always, in pushing up the freshly-inserted link, shove the series of inserted links just far enough to kproperly place the upper or leading link of the series on the face of the lower die, B, of the press.

lt will be here understood that as the series pushed upwardly and forwardly by the successive introduction of fresh links by the operator the links at the leading end of the series will be in succession placed upon and discharged from the surface of the die B, a link @being placed on said diev during each ascent of the upper die, C, and removed therefrom after the straightening operation, and to make room for the fresh link at the .next ascent of said die C.

straightened, and indicate two successive poI sitions of the link while being discharged, the link while on the face of the die B'being in a horizontal position, while the link which is to take its place is in an oblique position, (in the feeder D.) It will be seen that the enforced movement upwardly and forwardly of the latter when the operator pushes in a fresh link at the bottom of the feeder will operate on the link which is on the die-face inl such manner as to tend to first slightly elevate the coupler-hook end of the link and to then pushl the link bodily off of the face of the die. Now, this peculiar operation upon the link on the die-face is necessary to remove it therefrom, and its removal could not be practically or successfully effected if the pushing-link (or the series of links in the feeder) was ina horizontal position. or moved in the same plane of links contained in the feeder is periodically IOO IIO

hence the oblique arrangement of the feeder' device D, as well as the construction of the pushing-link, is an essential and important feature of the novel eontrivance made the sub ject of my application.

By reason of having the peculiar device or contrivance adjustable, afterthe manner shown and described, I am enabled to use the saine feeder-trough on the same press, and for straightening links of different lengths and thicknesses (Within a certain range) by simply shifting or changing the dies of the press, While by the use of the adjustable finger-stop h, I am enabled, by operating with different lengths of links, to regulate the extent of inotion or stroke of the operators hand, so that every time he pushes in a fresh link he will push the contents of the feeder-trough D just far enough to properly effect the dislodgment of the link which has been straightened, and the placement on the die B of the link to be straightened.

Of course in using links a little shorter, for instance, than those shown in the drawings, which would necessitate an adjustment of the iinger-stop 7i, the retaining-catch G will still operate to prevent. the descent or sliding out of the lowermost one of the series of contained links, although it would permit the series of links, after they had been pushed up to a maximum extent by the operator, to slightly recede, which, however, would make no difference in the practical operation of the machine, the function of said retaining-catch G being simply to prevent the escape of the contained links While the operator is procuring a fresh link to insert. Of course more or less variation may he made inthe sizes, proportions, and precise relative arrangements of the parts of the contrivance without departing from the spirit of my invention, solong as the machine involves substantially the principle of construction and mode of operation herein shown and described, and, as before indicated, the construction may be varied to adapt the machine to work with other devices.

That I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In combination with an ordinary droppress, an ascending or obliquely arranged feeder-trough, D, adapted to receive and retain one or more chain-links or other devices, the relative arrangement of said feeder-trou gh with the die of the press being such that Whenever a fresh article is inserted andpnshed upwardly Within said feeder-trough the preceding one may be forced onto the said die, disl charging therefrom the one which may be on the die, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

2. An obliquelyarranged feeder trough or device combined with an ordinary drop-press, and adjustable both longitudinally and vertically relatively to the lower die of said press, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

3. In combination with the feeder-trough, an adjustable finger or hand stop, h., substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

4. In combination With an obliquely-arranged ascending feeder-trough, D, adapted to receive one or more chainlinks or other blanks, a spring-catch or depressible retainer device, G, constructed and operating in a manner and for the purposes described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 1st day of September, 1884.

EUGENE L. HOWE.

In presence of- GLENN. G. HOWE, J. H. NIcKELsoN. 

